plus: New DMB Detroit date. Napster enlists filtering help. New David Byrne. Concert deaths. Village People obit. Eminem. It's not payola, see?

Attorneys for the prosecution and defense have made their final arguments in the Sean "Puffy" Combs trial, and the jury is expected to begin its deliberations on Wednesday (3/14), according to published reports. Prosecutors are trying to establish that the three guns found in connection with the case belonged to the three defendants. The defense argued that all of the witnesses who testified against Combs have also filed civil suits against him. "What happened is bad people came into this courtroom and made accusations against Sean Combs to get rich," Combs' attorney Benjamin Brafman said.

The Eagles [ tickets ] will play three Scandinavian dates in early June, according to European press reports. Shows will reportedly take place in Helsinki (6/1), Stockholm (6/3) and Oslo (6/4). Various press accounts have Eagles Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmidt at work in the studio on new material (Don Felder has been ousted from the band), and a full tour is said to be in the works.

Dave Matthews Band [ tickets ] has announced a new date at Detroit's Comerica Park--June 4, with Macy Gray opening. Tickets go on sale on March 17.

Napster has enlisted Gracenote Inc.--a company that has a database containing millions of song titles--to help them to filter material from its directories. Napster is trying to comply with a court order to block songs that record companies identify as copyrighted.

Virgin Records will release David Byrne's "Look into the Eyeball" on May 8. This album features Greg Cohen (Tom Waits) and Nru (Café Tacuba).

In related news, Columbia/Legacy released a DVD titled "The Best of Sessions at West 54th Vol. 2," featuring performances from the Byrne-hosted show by Lucinda Williams, John Hiatt, Elvis Costello, Kronos Quartet, Natalie Merchant and Steve Earle, among others.

According to Crowd Management Strategies, 19 people died at North American rock and rap shows in 2000.

Glenn Hughes of the Village People--he was the biker--died on March 4 at age 50, Wall of Sound reported, quoting the magazine the Advocate.

There's not much to envy about gay life in the '70s, but watching America embrace the Village People--that must have been a hoot.

Wall of Sound also reported that movie producer Brian Grazer ("The Nutty Professor," "Apollo 13") has cast Eminem in a "'Purple Rain' kind of movie."

The New York Daily News reported that Clear Channel Communications, which owns more than 1,200 radio stations, "is formulating a plan under which record labels would pay to have songs plugged on the air." The plugs would be "brief ads running immediately after a record is played."

Anticipating our immediate question, the article says that "Pay-for-play is not illegal as long as sponsorship is disclosed."